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O B I T U A R Y

Herpetologist Peter Vogel, a leading advocate for preserving
Jamaica’s wildlife, was found dead in his home on 19 July

2007. Police are investigating his death as a homicide. To date,
the crime remains unsolved.

Dr. Vogel, who was Swiss born, was the 2006 recipient of
the Gleaner Honour Award for Science and Technology. A
major area of his work revolved around the discovery of the
Jamaican Iguana (Cyclura collei) in the Hellshire Hills of St.
Catherine. He also was a recipient of the Institute of Jamaica’s
special Silver Award for science in 2001. Vogel initially arrived
in Jamaica in 1979, spending a year at the University of the
West Indies collecting data on anoline lizards for the University 
of Bochum, Germany. He subsequently completed his Ph.D.
in animal behavior and ecology from the University of Basel in
Switzerland. When he returned to Jamaica in 1985 to conduct
a two-year research project on anoline lizards, he was hired as a
lecturer in the Department of Life Sciences at a time when the
country had been without a locally based herpetologist for sev-
eral decades. This became especially critical in 1990, when the
Jamaican Iguana was rediscovered in the remote Hellshire Hills.
Peter was the obvious person to become chairman of the rap-
idly formed Jamaican Iguana Research and Conservation Group
(JIRCG), and his speedy response to an emergency conserva-
tion issue probably served to avert the otherwise likely extinc-
tion of the island’s largest land animal. In addition to imple-
menting critical conservation activities, Peter kept the JIRCG
going for many years, making it possible for other iguana con-
servationists to continue the effort.

Vogel’s research interests focused on the ecology and con-
servation of land vertebrates and their habitats. He was involved
in various biodiversity projects, including studies of communi-
ties of amphibians, reptiles, and birds in the Cockpit Country,
the Blue and John Crow Mountains, and the dry forests of the
southern coast. An important element of these projects was to
assess threat factors, and to identify and implement conserva-
tion measures. Dr. Vogel also served extensively on boards of
environmental NGOs. He was an executive member of BirdLife

Jamaica, the Jamaican Iguana Research and Conservation
Group, and the Game Bird Research Committee. Peter’s quiet
resolve and understanding of the conservation climate in
Jamaica inspired a generation of local conservationists, and the
success of those efforts will ultimately be a fitting tribute to his
love and concern for Jamaica’s endemic reptiles.

He is remembered by his widow, Parlan, and three chil-
dren. May he rest in peace.

In Memoriam: 
Peter Vogel1

Peter Vogel at the Main Camp in the rugged Hellshire Hills of Jamaica
in June 2002.

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1 Adapted from a news release and an obituary by Byron Wilson,
current JIRCG Director, that appeared in Reptiles magazine.

272 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 14, NUMBER 4  •  DECEMBER 2007 OBITUARY

The survival of the Jamaican Iguana (Cyclura collei) and the Jamaican Iguana Research and Conservation Group are two of Peter Vogel’s ongoing
legacies.

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